Charity Case

Are young kids into cars these days? When most of us on the HOT ROD staff were growing up, we were consumed by a lust for cars and an appetite for gasoline. Reading car mags in study hall was common, we always had greasy fingernails (even if it was from working on a bike), and the most effective way to teach us math was to explain how to degree a cam. But is it that way with today’s youth? Or are there just too many things vying for their attention? Has texting replaced bench racing?

2/6The Mustang was in pretty good shape when the project started. Gateway replaced the quarters with new metal from Dynacorn and left the stock lines alone, painting it DuPont Hot Hues Blue By-You with a matte-gray hood, decklid, and Boss 302 stripe. No, it’s not an original Boss.

In the face of school budget cuts and the elimination of shop classes, it’s nice to hear a story about encouraging young people to get involved with hot rods, and that’s what we have here. HOT ROD TV and Gateway Classic Mustang (GatewayClassicMustang.com, St. Louis, Missouri) got together on a project-car build for the TV show, with the idea of working with a local charity called the Alliance of Auto Artisans (AutoArtisans.org). The non-profit Alliance describes itself as “a student mentoring program for the car building industry,” and it recruited high school juniors Cody Benham and Dawn Weber from Bourbon High School in Bourbon, Missouri, to work on the project.

The project had two purposes: to garner national publicity for the charity and to showcase GCM’s upcoming package that allows early Mustang owners to bolt in a new 5.0 Coyote engine and custom front suspension. The team started with a ’69 Mustang Sportsroof that had been a former customer’s abandoned project and built it from the ground up with a modern drivetrain and GCM’s complete suspension system.

3/6Ford rates the new 5.0 at 415 hp, but with long-tube headers, no cats, and a freer-breathing cold-air-induction tube with a Spectre filter, this one put 400 hp to the tires on Shelby’s dyno. Custom DynaTech headers lead to MagnaFlow mufflers, and the radiator is from Performance Rod & Custom. A Keisler RS500 trans bolts to the 5.0 with a Quicktime bellhousing, and the Hays clutch is hydraulically actuated.

Ford Racing gave up a new 5.0 crate engine, and GCM used a Keisler RS500 five-speed trans, which is based on the late-’90s T-45. Dropping that wide mod motor into an early Mustang requires removing the shock towers, so GCM developed a tower-notch kit to allow it to fit, and DynaTech fabbed a custom set of long-tube headers for this application. GCM has developed (and licensed to Shelby) a unique front suspension that uses modern struts in place of the stock upper control arms and coil springs and allows the notched shock towers. According to GCM’s Jason Childress, this setup totally eliminates the bumpsteer that comes with every early Mustang and makes the car ride like it’s brand new. The rear suspension is GCM’s three-link setup with a 9-inch and Afco double-adjustable shocks, and the car was mini-tubbed to fit fat tires.

As you can probably tell, this is not an outrageous car. There is a noticeable absence of bling and the paint is very nice but not in your face—nothing screams, “Look at me!” Jason says. “We built it the way Ford would if it had today’s technology in 1969.” Yeah, that’s cliché, but it’s appropriate in this case.

They got the car finished and dyno-tuned it at Shelby’s shop in Las Vegas the weekend before the SEMA Show. On the dyno, they blew the clutch into a zillion tiny pieces and couldn’t get it fixed until Thursday night, during the show. They fixed it in the trailer, and the car’s very first road trip was the 100-mile road rally from Vegas to Pahrump, Nevada, for the Optima shootout the next day. The car made that trip fine (and even knocked down 24 mpg cruising at around 100 mph!), then competed in the shootout, which consists of an autocross, a braking contest, and road-course laps. Going up against cars built specifically for the event, GCM’s Mustang didn’t win, but that wasn’t the goal. It also didn’t score high in the show judging because of the car’s lack of custom trickery and bling. It’s a near-stock-looking Mustang with a perfect stance, stock-ish interior (unless you really look at it), and a factory-appearing drivetrain. It really does look as if Ford built it that way.

Also involved in the project was Auto Trader, which listed the car for sale online, with proceeds to go to the Alliance of Auto Artisans. The price is $140,000, and the car hasn’t sold, so for now it is being used as Gateway’s promo vehicle to showcase its 5.0 swap package for early Mustangs. That kit, which will be available soon, has everything you need to bolt a Coyote engine into a Mustang, including the motor, transmission, front suspension, notched towers, air-conditioning setup, and more. Or, you can just buy this car.

There should be more stories like this one. If you’re a kid in high school who’s into cars, try to get a job in a hot rod shop. Offer to start at the bottom, even if that means just sweeping the floors, and be open to learn without attitude. And shop owners, let these kids work and teach them our way of life. It’s how we continue to keep hot rodding alive.